“We’re just going to put her things in the house,” Harry put in. “I take it you left the door open, son?”
“Yep,” Alexander answered, his gaze only for her.
She frowned and looked over at the older couple. “I thought you wanted Alexander to get the things out of the car, old man?”
Marie laughed. “Shut it and stop thinking too hard about our lies, young lady. We will see you at work or at a family dinner soon.” They dropped off her things and left without another word.
Alexander stuffed his hands in his pockets and didn’t say anything as his parents drove off. “You’re cold.”
She blinked up at him. “What?”
He smiled but it didn’t reach his eyes. “You’re cold, babe. We’re both shivering out here because we don’t know what to say. Let’s go inside and try to actually talk in there.”
She snorted but agreed, and soon they were in her living room with their coats off, still as silent as before.
“I’m sorry for pushing you away,” she blurted.
Alexander shook his head before reaching out and taking the hand that peeked out of a cast. “No, I’m the sorry one. I’m the one who left. Yeah, you asked, but I still left. I needed a minute to make sure I was steady before I could be the rock you needed. Then when the time came, I stayed away longer than I should have because I didn’t know if you wanted me to come back.”
She shook her head. “I wanted you. I still want you.” She was breaking again. Open. Raw. Shattering.
He cupped her face and brushed the tears from her cheeks with his thumbs. “I wanted you, too. And yeah, I still want you. I also stayed away because I needed to understand what I was feeling. You see, I was so fucking scared about loving someone again that I didn’t realize what I was feeling at all. I buried my head in the sand and almost lost you because of it.”
Her heart shuddered, and her breath quickened. “You haven’t lost me, Alexander. Not yet.”
He let out a breath. “I was afraid to love you because I was afraid to need you too much. The thing is, that’s not something I can control. I need you, Tabitha. I need you with every ounce of my being. Not because I’m not strong enough without you, but because I’m stronger with you. I’m a better man with you in my life, and I want to be the man who loves you. I am the man who loves you. You ripped open a part of me I didn’t know had scarred over so deeply that I almost lost it. You left me raw, exposed, and yours. All of that might sound like I hate it, but it’s just the opposite. I don’t have that burden inside me anymore, that ache that told me I had to run and hide from anything important. I fucking love you, Tabitha. I love you with everything I am, and I should have loved you far longer than this. I wish to hell that I’d had years with you before this; that I hadn’t wasted my time drowning myself in pain and self-pity. But I know we can’t go back, we can only move forward. I love you, Tabitha. I love you so fucking much.”
Tears flowed freely, and she reached up to kiss him hard on the lips. “You are…you are so much more than your past. Just like I’m so much more than mine. I love you, Alexander. I’ve loved you for longer than I should have, but I love you more with each passing day. You broke something open in me, too, but you’re right, it’s the good kind of break. It’s a break that’s going to let us tangle in each other and be who we need to be, rather than the outcome of past decisions that aren’t who we are anymore.”
He kissed her again, and she sighed into him. “I’m so glad you got that. Griffin is the one who’s good with words. I feel like I’m just throwing things out there at this point, but no matter what, I want you to know that I love you. I want to be with you, Tabitha. I want to learn to be who we are now, by your side. And watch you smile every morning. I want you in our bed, not mine, not yours, but ours. I want you in my life, and I want you to be…just I want you to be. Just like I want to be.”
She kissed his chest, his chin, his cheeks, then his lips. “I want to be, too. And I believe in you, baby. I believe in you so much.”
“I got you something,” he whispered, and moved back from her to pick up a rectangular box.
She wiped her face and took it from him. “What would you have done if I’d told you to leave?”
He shrugged and bit into his lip. “I’d have left the box for you to find and tried to persuade you. I’m not giving up on you easily.”
“I’m not giving up on you either.” She lifted the lid from the box and let out a tiny squeak.
Alexander didn’t say anything. Inside was a delicate, handmade wooden frame that held a black and white photo. It was the photo he’d taken of her in the office, with her head down and her lips curving into a small, shy smile. She remembered how much she’d wanted to hide from him when he’d taken that photo, afraid he’d see too much.
And she knew now that she’d had a reason to be worried.
Her love for him resonated through the photo in perfect harmony. Yet she could feel the love of the photographer, her photographer just as much.
But that wasn’t why she’d made that sound.
Nestled inside a small ledge built into the frame was a white gold ring with a single solitaire shining on top.
She set the box down on the table with shaking hands and held the ring between her thumb and finger with one hand and the frame in the other.
“Alexander?” she breathed.
She looked down at him on one knee and almost fainted right then.
“I know it’s early, and I know we should wait, and we will if we want to, but I wanted you to know that I love you and I want you to be my wife. I want to marry you, want to be your husband. I want you to be a damn Montgomery once and for all, and I want to look into our future together knowing we can be anything, do anything, and live through anything as long as we have each other.”
She sniffed and went to her knees in front of him, setting the picture on the ground beside them. “Yes,” she whispered. “Yes to all of that. Yes, yes, yes.”
A single tear fell down his cheek and she leaned forward to kiss it away. He captured her lips in an achingly sweet kiss before pulling back and sliding the ring on her finger.
“I’m going to be a Montgomery,” she said after a moment, and they both laughed.
“I honestly didn’t know if that was going to be a pro or a con for you,” Alexander said with another laugh.
“A pro,” she answered. “Totally a pro.”
And then she leaned forward and kissed the hell out of her fiancé, Alexander Montgomery. Because yeah, she’d be a Montgomery, after all, it just took her falling in love with the one man most thought she shouldn’t to make that happen.
And that sounded like the end of a perfect plan to her.
The End
Coming Next in the Montgomery Ink World:
Two novellas where secret side characters find their happy ever afters.
Then Storm finally finds his other half…in the one woman he shouldn’t.
A Note from Carrie Ann
Thank you so much for reading INK EXPOSED. I do hope if you liked this story, that you would please leave a review. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us authors know if you’d like to see more stories like this from us. I love hearing from readers and talking to them when I can. If you want to make sure you know what’s coming next from me, you can sign up for my newsletter at www.CarrieAnnRyan.com; follow me on twitter at @CarrieAnnRyan, or like my Facebook page. I also have a Facebook Fan Club where we have trivia, chats, and other goodies. You guys are the reason I get to do what I do and I thank you.
Make sure you’re signed up for my MAILING LIST so you can know when the next releases are available as well as find giveaways and FREE READS.
The Montgomery Ink series is an on going series. I hope you get a chance to catch up! Storm and Everly’s book is next in INKED EXPRESSIONS. These two surprised me within this book and now I’m chomping at the bit to write their book..
Before their boo
k, however, I have two novellas releasing in 2017. The first is Brody and Holly’s story called ADORING INK and releases in Jan 2017 as part of 1001 Dark Nights. Then Harper and Arianna get their story in LOVE, HONOR, and INK in the spring.
There are many Montgomerys, a few Gallaghers, and after that, a few secret surprises to come. Yay for bearded, broody, inked characters!
Montgomery Ink:
Book 0.5: Ink Inspired
Book 0.6: Ink Reunited
Book 1: Delicate Ink
The Montgomery Ink Box Set (Contains Books 0.5, 0.6, 1)
Book 1.5: Forever Ink
Book 2: Tempting Boundaries
Book 3: Harder than Words
Book 4: Written in Ink
Book 4.5: Hidden Ink
Book 5: Ink Enduring
Book 6: Ink Exposed
Book 6.5: Adoring Ink (Coming January 2017)
Book 6.6: Love, Honor, and Ink (Coming Feb 2017)
Book 7: Inked Expressions (Coming June 2017)
More to come!
Want to keep up to date with the next Carrie Ann Ryan Release? Receive Text Alerts easily!
Text CARRIE to 24587
About Carrie Ann and her Books
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan never thought she’d be a writer. Not really. No, she loved math and science and even went on to graduate school in chemistry. Yes, she read as a kid and devoured teen fiction and Harry Potter, but it wasn’t until someone handed her a romance book in her late teens that she realized that there was something out there just for her. When another author suggested she use the voices in her head for good and not evil, The Redwood Pack and all her other stories were born.
Carrie Ann is a bestselling author of over twenty novels and novellas and has so much more on her mind (and on her spreadsheets *grins*) that she isn’t planning on giving up her dream anytime soon.
www.CarrieAnnRyan.com
Redwood Pack Series:
Book 1: An Alpha’s Path
Book 2: A Taste for a Mate
Book 3: Trinity Bound
Redwood Pack Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
Book 3.5: A Night Away
Book 4: Enforcer’s Redemption
Book 4.5: Blurred Expectations
Book 4.7: Forgiveness
Book 5: Shattered Emotions
Book 6: Hidden Destiny
Book 6.5: A Beta’s Haven
Book 7: Fighting Fate
Book 7.5: Loving the Omega
Book 7.7: The Hunted Heart
Book 8: Wicked Wolf
The Complete Redwood Pack Box Set (Contains Books 1-7.7)
The Talon Pack (Following the Redwood Pack Series):
Book 1: Tattered Loyalties
Book 2: An Alpha’s Choice
Book 3: Mated in Mist
Book 4: Wolf Betrayed
Book 5: Fractured Silence (Coming April 2017)
Book 6: Destiny Disgraced (Coming September 2017)
Montgomery Ink:
Book 0.5: Ink Inspired
Book 0.6: Ink Reunited
Book 1: Delicate Ink
The Montgomery Ink Box Set (Contains Books 0.5, 0.6, 1)
Book 1.5: Forever Ink
Book 2: Tempting Boundaries
Book 3: Harder than Words
Book 4: Written in Ink
Book 4.5: Hidden Ink
Book 5: Ink Enduring
Book 6: Ink Exposed
Book 6.5: Adoring Ink (Coming January 2017)
Book 6.6: Love, Honor, and Ink (Coming Feb 2017)
Book 7: Inked Expressions (Coming June 2017)
The Gallagher Brothers Series:
A Montgomery Ink Spin Off Series
Book 1: Love Restored
Book 2: Passion Restored (Coming February 2017)
Book 3: Hope Restored (Coming July 2017)
The Branded Pack Series:
(Written with Alexandra Ivy)
Book 1: Stolen and Forgiven
Book 2: Abandoned and Unseen
Book 3: Buried and Shadowed
Dante’s Circle Series:
Book 1: Dust of My Wings
Book 2: Her Warriors’ Three Wishes
Book 3: An Unlucky Moon
The Dante’s Circle Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
Book 3.5: His Choice
Book 4: Tangled Innocence
Book 5: Fierce Enchantment
Book 6: An Immortal’s Song
Book 7: Prowled Darkness
The Complete Dante’s Circle Series (Contains Books 1-7)
Holiday, Montana Series:
Book 1: Charmed Spirits
Book 2: Santa’s Executive
Book 3: Finding Abigail
The Holiday, Montana Box Set (Contains Books 1-3)
Book 4: Her Lucky Love
Book 5: Dreams of Ivory
The Complete Holiday, Montana Box Set (Contains Books 1-5)
The Happy Ever After Series:
Flame and Ink
Ink Ever After (Coming December 2016)
Single Title:
Finally Found You
Excerpt: Delicate Ink
From New York Times Bestselling Author Carrie Ann Ryan’s Montgomery Ink Series
Delicate Ink
“If you don’t turn that fucking music down, I’m going to ram this tattoo gun up a place no one on this earth should ever see.”
Austin Montgomery lifted the needle from his client’s arm so he could hold back a rough chuckle. He let his foot slide off the pedal so he could keep his composure. Dear Lord, his sister Maya clearly needed more coffee in her life.
Or for someone to turn down the fucking music in the shop.
“You’re not even working, Maya. Let me have my tunes,” Sloane, another artist, mumbled under his breath. Yeah, he didn’t yell it. Didn’t need to. No one wanted to yell at Austin’s sister. The man might be as big as a house and made of pure muscle, but no one messed with Maya.
Not if they wanted to live.
“I’m sketching, you dumbass,” Maya sniped, even though the smile in her eyes belied her wrath. His sister loved Sloane like a brother. Not that she didn’t have enough brothers and sisters to begin with, but the Montgomerys always had their arms open for strays and spares.
Austin rolled his eyes at the pair’s antics and stood up from his stool, his body aching from being bent over for too long. He refrained from saying that aloud as Maya and Sloane would have a joke for that. He usually preferred to have the other person in bed—or in the kitchen, office, doorway, etc—bent over, but that wasn’t where he would allow his mind to go. As it was, he was too damn old to be sitting in that position for too long, but he wanted to get this sleeve done for his customer.
“Hold on a sec, Rick,” he said to the man in the chair. “Want juice or anything? I’m going to stretch my legs and make sure Maya doesn’t kill Sloane.” He winked as he said it, just in case his client didn’t get the joke.
People could be so touchy when siblings threatened each other with bodily harm even while they smiled as they said it.
“Juice sounds good,” Rick slurred, a sappy smile on his face. “Don’t let Maya kill you.”
Rick blinked his eyes open, the adrenaline running through his system giving him the high that a few patrons got once they were in the chair for a couple hours. To Austin, there was nothing better than having Maya ink his skin—or doing it himself—and letting the needle do its work. He wasn’t a pain junkie, far from it if he was honest with himself, but he liked the adrenaline that led the way into fucking fantastic art. While some people thought bodies were sacred and tattoos only marred them, he knew it differently. Art on canvas, any canvas, could have the potential to be art worth bleeding for. As such, he was particular as to who laid a needle on his skin. He only let Maya ink him when he couldn’t do it himself. Maya was the same way. Whatever she couldn’t do herself, he did.
They were brother and sister, friends, and co-owners of Montgomer
y Ink.
He and Maya had opened the shop a decade ago when she’d turned twenty. He probably could have opened it a few years earlier since he was eight years older than Maya, but he’d wanted to wait until she was ready. They were joint owners. It had never been his shop while she worked with him. They both had equal say, although with the way Maya spoke, sometimes her voice seemed louder. His deeper one carried just as much weight, even if he didn’t yell as much.
Barely.
Sure, he wasn’t as loud as Maya, but he got his point across when needed. His voice held control and authority.
He picked up a juice box for Rick from their mini-fridge and turned down the music on his way back. Sloane scowled at him, but the corner of his mouth twitched as if he held back a laugh.
“Thank God one of you has a brain in his head,” Maya mumbled in the now quieter room. She rolled her eyes as both he and Sloane flipped her off then went back to her sketch. Yeah, she could have gotten up to turn the music down herself, but then she couldn’t have vented her excess energy at the two of them. That was just how his sister worked, and there would be no changing that.
He went back to his station situated in the back so he had the corner space, handed Rick his juice, then rubbed his back. Damn, he was getting old. Thirty-eight wasn’t that far up there on the scales, but ever since he’d gotten back from New Orleans, he hadn’t been able to shake the weight of something off of his chest.
He needed to be honest. He’d started feeling this way since before New Orleans. He’d gone down to the city to visit his cousin Shep and try to get out of his funk. He’d broken up with Shannon right before then; however, in reality, it wasn’t as much a breakup as a lack of connection and communication. They hadn’t cared about each other enough to move on to the next level, and as sad as that was, he was fine with it. If he couldn’t get up the energy to pursue a woman beyond a couple of weeks or months of heat, then he knew he was the problem. He just didn’t know the solution. Shannon hadn’t been the first woman who had ended the relationship in that fashion. There’d been Brenda, Sandrine, and another one named Maggie.
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